Photographer: Akos Stiller / Bloomberg
Photographer: Akos Stiller / Bloomberg
A 24-year-old founder of two New York-based cryptocurrency hedge funds with more than $ 100 million in investments pleaded guilty Thursday to securities fraud.
Stefan He Qin was accused of misleading investors by alleging that he was using a trading algorithm to take advantage of price differences for various cryptocurrencies, federal prosecutors said in an email statement.
Qin stole money from investors in his Virgil Sigma Fund LP and tried to dive into his VQR Multistrategy Fund LP to pay first fund investors, prosecutors said. He admitAccording to the statement, he attempted to rob another fund he controlled to cover VQR fund repayment claims.
“The entire house of letters has been revealed and now Qin is awaiting sentencing for his brazen theft,” Audrey Strauss, the acting Manhattan lawyer, said in the statement.
Qin’s fraud was based on misrepresentations about his investment strategy to attract millions of dollars of investors to fraudulent cryptocurrency companies, prosecutors said. Qin, an Australian national, embezzled almost all of the capital of the Virgil Sigma fund to pay, among other personal expenses, for an attic apartment. He has up to 20 years in prison.
“Mr. Qin has accepted full responsibility for his actions and is committed to doing everything possible to amend them, “his lawyers, Sean Hecker and Shawn Crowley, said in a statement.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission presented a parallel civil case against Qin in December.
– With the assistance of Olga Kharif
(Updates with comments from Qin lawyers)